bidding farewell to Hotel Charlotte

As a Charlotte Native, one must certainly note the closing of one of our oldest restaurants. Just days after celebrating its 31st anniversary, Hotel Charlotte Restaurant has closed its doors. Now, rumor is that it will probably be re-opened as early as next week under new ownership, but one must take a moment to pause and reflect on this closing of another chapter in its life.

(insert history of the restaurant here)

I had always known it was a choir tradition to go across the street after rehearsal for dinner and drinks. My father had gone weekly before I was born and while I was a young child. My boss went, everyone went, and come to think of it, it was at Hotel Charlotte that I have made the connections leading to my three most recent jobs.

I re-joined my choir family 5 years ago. It's hard to imagine it's been that long, but there have been semesters taken off for school here and there. I'm no longer the youngest choir member either. The summer after I started attending rehearsals, Gratia invited me to join them at Hotel Charlotte for drinks. Well, I was 20 years old, and although I probably could have had a drink, I was ordering Sweet Tea. The waiter told me "Honey, you're at the wrong table. You need to sit outside with the Presbyterians."

You see, our group was known for its drinks. Nancy has Jameson on the rocks, Gratia has Gin and Tonic (with water and a straw so she could dilute it a little), Pam has the Martini, David has the Warsteiner or some other beer, John, Ardis, Debbie and Agnes are the wine connoisseurs (for the record, David and Pam are as well), Larry was working on getting his own glass (which is the reward for drinking all 99 or so different beers that they have). My boss and quite a few others had achieved theirs years ago. I know there are others to be mentioned, but these constitute the present core-group. Where was I to fit in? Well, I became known for the frilly pink raspberry Hotel Charlotte Martini. Then, after that got old, the red wines (Blue Franc, and Shooting Star Zin, to be exact), then margaritas, then the economy hit... I, like everyone else, was cutting back. Water for me, please. Water and half-size salads or just a sandwich. The first few (and worst) weeks of this, others were picking up my tab on occasion. $7-9 was not much to them, and they knew I was only making $30-$100 a week. I fought back though, and the last two weeks I have been able to have a glass of wine with that half-salad or sandwich.

I said before that my most-recent three jobs have come from relationships fostered at Hotel Charlotte. These people knew me from when I was very young - my whole life, even. I probably could have gotten them just being in the choir, but I like to think it was at Hotel where these acquaintanceships became far more familial in nature. Debbie approached me in the fall of 2006 with an offer to come work at the jewelry store for Christmas. When it came time to get an architectural internship, everyone told me I should talk to Paul. I knew I could ask, but I didn't want to design jails. At least not at the time. So I ended up designing water and wastewater treatment plants. After hearing of my upcoming lay-off of from Hazen and Sawyer, it was at Hotel Charlotte one Thursday evening that I casually asked Paul if he would possibly be hiring any interns soon. It was such an exasperated and sarcastic question that I was surprised when he replied "Actually, Glenn and I were talking about that the other day. Why don't you come in and bring your portfolio by the office one day?" That was perhaps the easiest job-acquisition ever. I worked for them for a year and a half. The economy hit their firm a couple of months before graduation. After several months of unemployment and building my babysitting clientele, Pam and David took the get-nicole-a-job baton, recommending me to their daughter as a potential nanny for their grandson, Devin. That's where I'm working now. It's not ideal, and everyone knows I would rather be working in a firm, but it's where I am, and there certainly are worse ways to make money than spending one's time playing with an 8 month old baby all day.

So last night, I drag Ross over to Hotel Charlotte for its final night. As we are walking in, I notice Paul's vehicle in the parking lot. The place is packed - it's standing room only at the bar. Paul quickly finds us, and I introduce him to Ross, my friend who is about to graduate, inevitably joining the world of the unemployed architectural grads. We order our last round of drinks, which Paul picks up the tab on, chat for a while, and bid the Steve and Sam (the owner and bartender, respectively) farewell, and head on to The Comet and Sir Edmond Halleys, two other fine Charlotte establishments, that only the locals really know about, and can find, for that matter ;)